BOOBIE-GRABBING & ZEN-LIVING

Tonight, I woke up with a shock. Across my chest an arm had landed all of a sudden and I felt a tiny, sleeping body come closer to me. I pushed Jennifer away again, silently laughing about this being her second attempt to second-base me in her sleep, and soon went back to dreaming.

Next time I woke up it was quarter past eight and my girls were eager to get to the breakfast restaurant.
"Big day today!" Jennifer shouted from the bathroom. "Wakey wakey! Doi Suthep before noon, remember?"
I did, even though my body had no intention of co-operating today.
I had been up until 2.30 that night, chatting with the friends back at home. The time difference really sucked at times. When it was pitch black night for me, Claudia and Simon were off celebrating our weekly tradition of The Sunday Pizza, and I missed them like crazy. They were the biggest part of the routines I do actually miss, the everyday fikas and the long, long, long, neverending, talks.

But outside sun was shining Thai-style; a warm, glowy light that made all of my Instagram pictures look temperature-enhanced, and breakfast was waiting for no one after 10 am.

We filled our plates with fruit and gorged up on coffee and french toast and hurried vacay-style, meaning: not so much.

ART.SCIENCE MUSEUM SINGAPORE

Julia is such a nerd.
She likes biology and chemistry and math and even went through the natural science program in high school, whereas I chose not to be that ambitious and studied social science instead, secretly longing for the day I would pursue my true interests of the more creative sort.  

Now Julia wants to study psychiatry instead and my art persona is no longer hidden, but still, it somehow felt like somebody had modelled the ArtScience Museum in Singapore to perfectly fit our specific wants. 

Located right next to Marina Bay Sands, it should be no problemo finding our way there - if you are not one of the Axelsson sisters, that is. We jumped off by Marina South Pier. Don't do that. You'll

have to walk in the gazing sun for 20 minutes before turning up at Shoppes at Marina bay, something that would have taken you 2 minutes if you just exited at Marina Bay.  

...It was not even our first time in the area. (!!!)

Oh my, this is going to be an interesting trip... 

Speaking of interesting, they have this permanent exhibition on ArtScience Museum called Future World. We both managed to get in on Julia's student card, which ment two exhibitons for 19 S$ each.

And then the fun began... 

UNAWATUNA - A CAPSULE OF FROZEN TIME // LAST DAYS IN SRI LANKA

DAY 9-16 

UNAWATUNA

The 31th of January, we got fed up by the German lady and the dead corals and violent waves of Hikkaduwa and packed our suitcases for another beach town called Unawatuna, after being tipped of that there was supposed to be a beach reachable only through a walk in the jungle, that was supposed to have calm waters and very little people. Jennifer was longing for snorkling and I was just longing to get away from the hotel owner and her cheap internet, so we jumped on a train and 40 minutes later, we were there.

SEA TURTLE CONSERVATION & HATCHERY IN HIKKADUWA

WHAT:
A a family business conservation of sea turtles where the eggs are hatched and re-released in the sea after they are fed and looked after.

THE FIRST 48 HOURS - ASIA 2018

It has been a couple of looong days. 

In less than 48 hours,  I've gone from leaving my mom at the airport to take a unexpected detour touristing in London with Jessica just two hours later;
 to stress back to the airport to sit on a plane for 10 hours and cry because I felt so alone and didn't want to sleep on a strangers shoulder, but at the same time longed for closeness possibly more than I ever done before;
to entering Sri Lanka with no idea if I'd get a Visa or not, to being stuck at the airport with the same cluelessnes in next task - getting to the hotel;
to wandering the streets of Colombo in aftermidday sun with the task to find Galle Face which was supposed to be a great place for catching the sunset;
to falling asleep at 20 pm and being waked 1 am by Jennifer having trouble to enter the room.

At Galle Face Green, great spot for watching the sunset and eat cheap food. 

SINGAPORE-SPO FEAT MONA KAVEH

Mona, a friend from high school, spent four months as an exchange student in Singapore, and was eager to tell me about every little hidden gem the country and it's surroundings had to offer.

"First tip - upon arrival, google

"What's happening this week in Singapore".

There's always something going on, whether it's food festivals, jazz festival, arts, music, drinks... They really like festivals, haha.
TimeOut Singapore is the first resault and we used it all the time."

Other than that, Mona had a lot of great tips for any week in Singapore...

THE ULTIMATE QUICK-GUIDE TO SOUTH EAST ASIA FIRST-TRIPPERS

- PLEASE NOTE! POST STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION! -

Mona called Felicia one day.
"Hey, I looked at your blog for some inspiration on South East Asia in general now when I'm going to Singapore, but... I kind of just want a post with the most essential tips. Do you guys have anything like that that I just havn't found yet?"

Sadly, we were forced to respond with a no, we don't have that on our webpage. Yet. But it was a really inspirational idea and we sat down immediately to sketch on a post.

The thing was, there is sooo much to know before going, there could be a whole book about it. And there is. Countless of them. Therefor we decided to boil it down and personalize it up a bit from the ordinary backpacker's guidebook - after all, we are not your ordinary backpacker. 

Even though we are being typically-Swedish-modest, this (awesome) GUIDE still INCLUDES

- Personal fails and how to avoid them

- How to trick both cookies and swindlers

- How to not be The Dumb Tourist

- 

Here we go. 

SOULFUL SEOUL - A photo essay by Jonas & Julia

Earlier this fall, Julia's boyfriend Jonas went to South Korea to study korean. 

Julia sure is Felicia's sister and therefor seized the opportunity to visit him during the end of his studies. 

Felicia and Jonathan seized the opportunity to get their hands on some asian pictures since the traveling aches was starting to get to them.

And also because we love the idea of spreading traveling inspiration and tips even for places we are yet to visit. 

We want to be a place on the internet where you go to get tips and inspiration for your next trip for as many places as possible, as well as the place to go and take a minivacation and be amuzed when everyday life isn't that exciting.

Look at the pictures, read the cations and escape to hypermodern yet traditional Seoul for a while... 

WHAT TO EAT IN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

When you can't travel yourself,
you drool over somebody else's traveling pictures... 

WHAT WE DID WRONG IN HONG KONG

(Excuse the rhyme?)

Jonathan still reminds me how wide open my mouth was that night we drove from the airport to our hotel in Hong Kong. The silhuette made of blinking lights, the high buildings that seem to never stop, the silent lake to frame it all... I don't think I've ever seen such amazing sight.

TRAVELING CONSCIOUSLY: Elephants in Thailand

Source: Elephant Nature Park

So I started to read about traveling, thinking "exploring the world" is just another word for Rich Western People trying to get a bit of enlightment at the cost of another lands culture, traditions and nature. I've read countless traveling blogs the last year, and two things strikes me: